Dean's List
by weasleytook
Summary: Jeff is dying to know who made the dean's list not the one you're thinking of and enlists Annie to help.


She's walking past Dean Pelton's office when she catches a glimpse through the glass of a very familiar head of hair. Annie stops suddenly and takes four steps backwards to see if she's right. Jeff is kneeling on the floor trying to undo the padlock that she once tried to break with Britta and Shirley.

Annie goes through the door, puts her right hand on her hip and clears her throat loudly making Jeff practically jump out of his skin.

"Annie? What the hell are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that. Why are you trying to pick Dean Pelton's lock with a letter opener?"

Jeff stares at her for a second and she knows he's trying to lawyer his way out of this one. He stands up and does that charming Jeff Winger smile. The one that makes her stomach do somersaults.

"Well, I was…"

Her eyes get wider and even though she's nearly a foot shorter than Jeff, she stretches to her full height and gives him one hell of a stare down.

"Okay, fine. Last semester, Dean Pelton said they keep a list of attractive students and faculty and rank them. He said I was number two on that list…"

Annie's jaw drops in surprise and the hand on her hip falls to her side. "Are you really so vain that you need to know who number one is?"

Jeff's head nods quickly. "Absolutely, yes. Don't you want to know?"

"No. I don't."

"Yeah, you do."

"Nooooo…"

Jeff grins and takes a few steps forward to look directly in to her eyes. "Come on, Annie, you MUST be curious. Just a little. Knowledge is power, after all."

"I'm pretty sure that's not what Sir Francis Bacon meant when he said that."

"Well, maybe can find you a new boyfriend on the list."

She wrinkles up her nose in disgust. "No way. And I sincerely hope you aren't trolling this list for your latest conquest."

"Never. Now come on, Annie, be my partner in crime. Please?"

She frowns for a moment and then nods with a loud sigh. Mentally, she wants to slap herself for giving in, but figures it can't do too much harm. Besides, he's right, she is definitely curious.

"Fine, but that letter opener won't get you anywhere. You need…"

Annie looks around and finds a very large globe-shaped paperweight on a table. She grabs it and holds it out to Jeff. "This. You're going to have to smash it."

Jeff takes it from her and he almost looks proud. "Perfect. Stand back."

Annie stands behind him and watches as one swift smash of the paperweight knocks the padlock off.

Well, she thinks to herself, that was kind of hot.

Jeff looks over his shoulder at her with a wink and she wonders briefly if she said that last thought out loud.

"Let's do this…"

She breathes a quiet sigh of relief and follows Jeff into Pelton's dimly lit office. Looking around, she points to the file cabinets.

"You get those. I'll take the desk drawers."

They search in silence for a few minutes and Annie sits in the Dean's chair to search his drawers. It feels so wrong, but at the same time, it's a little bit exciting. She doesn't know if it's because she's hanging out with Jeff or because she's being more than a little rebellious.

"Found it!"

Jeff pulls a spiral bound book out of the cabinet and kneels on the floor next to Annie.

"He had it professionally bound? That's really creepy."

"No, what's creepy is that it has pictures of everyone. Candids. With a telephoto lens."

"Eww." Annie can't help but shudder just a little, but looks at him expectantly, "So, who is number one?"

Jeff flips it over to the first page and finds a picture of himself. "Me. Huh."

He glances at the cover again and then back to Annie. "New semester, so it's been updated. Last year's number one must have graduated, transferred or dropped out. I wonder who it was…"

Annie is a little too quick to answer. "The hot guy from Anthropology class . Definitely."

"The guy who always had a five o'clock shadow even at nine in the morning?"

Annie smiles wistfully. "Yeahhhh. He looked like a young Gerard Butler. And he transferred to University of Denver over the summer."

Jeff looks a little offended and pulls the list out of her line of sight. "He was hotter than me?"

Annie bites the edge of her lip. Anthro guy was hot but dull as a butter knife.

"Well, hotness is very subjective… but… uhm."

"We're friends, Annie, you can tell me the truth."

"You're cool and smart and funny, and well… you're way hotter." She smiles nervously and hopes he can't see the pink blushing her cheeks in the dim light of the office.

He grins a little and gives her a nod. "Thank you. Now… let's see where everyone else ranks."

"Dean Pelton is really… strange. I mean, what's his deal?"

"I have no idea. But seeing as how he ranked Pierce above Britta, I'm not feeling as flattered about being number one as I used to be."

Annie slumps in the chair, this time her stomach does the bad kind of somersaults. "Oh yuck."

Jeff raises his eyebrows as he peers over the top of the book to look at her. "Don't you want to know where you rank?"

"Not really."

She lies. A little. Annie had never been the hot girl in high school, and though she wasn't that girl anymore, she still had a few of those hang-ups left.

"I used to practice law and you, Annie Edison, are the worst liar I've ever met."

"Fine. But if it's bad news, lie to me. You're better at it than I am so I'll probably believe you no matter what you say."

He glances back down at the list and then back to her. "Annie Edison… you, milady, are number two."

Annie sits straight up and gives him a playful smack on the arm. "Okay, now I know you're lying. I mean, you could have said number seven and I might have believed that. But that's just ridiculous…"

Jeff doesn't say a word, just turns the list around to show her a page with her name, picture and ranking of number two, just as he said.

"Oh my God… No way. Dean Pelton IS crazy."

"Well, it's like you said, hotness is subjective…"

Now it was her turn to look offended. "Wait. You don't think I'm hot? I mean… of course you don't. You don't think of me that way… Uhm, do you?"

Jeff shuts the book and tries to look away from her. "This was a bad idea."

"Hey, I told you what I thought and… now it's your turn."

He looks back at her and frowns. "I always thought you were the smartest person in our study group. Smarter than me."

"I asked you if you thought I was hot or pretty or whatever. I didn't ask if you thought I was smart."

Jeff is flustered and Annie hasn't seen him act that way since they were debate partners the year before. "As I was saying, I thought you were smart, but if you don't know how beautiful you are… you're extremely stupid."

"Jeff…"

"Come on, Annie… you really think what happened between us last year was only strategy?"

Her mouth opens and closes but no words will come out. They had both wanted that kiss and they had both enjoyed it, but for a million reasons they had been ignoring it for the past year. Now here it was, staring her straight in the face again.

She knew the answer, but not how to say it, so she replies with a kiss. It is tentative and soft at first. Then Jeff lightly nibbles at her lower lip and the intensity increased. It lasted at least ten times longer than their first kiss and Jeff has his hands tangled in her hair even as she breaks away from him.

"Jeff?"

Her skin is warm all over and part of her feels stupid that it had taken another year for them to do this again. She hopes it won't be another year.

His eyes move from her eyes and down to her lips as he replies. "Yes?"

"You're not going to pat me on the head and forget about it this time, are you?"

"Definitely not."

Annie smiles sweetly at him as he moves in for another kiss. She makes a quick mental note to tell Jeff later that he had been right. She did find a new boyfriend on Dean Pelton's list.


End file.
